Meet Ruda Fabiano: From surfing in Brazil to skiing in the Berkshires

ACCENTS: THE VOICES OF OUR IMMIGRANT NEIGHBORS IN THE BERKSHIRES

From the sand dunes of the "Brazilian Caribbean" to the slopes of Ski Butternut, Ruda Fabiano brings his enthusiasm for work and love of people to his new life in the Berkshires.

REINOUT VAN WAGTENDONK - SPECIAL TO THE EAGLE

Posted
Saturday, August 19, 2017 3:06 pm

Feijoada (Brazilian Black Bean Stew)

Ingredients

1 (12 ounces) package dry black beans, soaked overnight

1 1/2 cups chopped onion (divided for three different steps)

1/2 cup green onions, chopped

1 clove garlic, chopped

2 smoked ham hocks

8 ounces diced ham

1/2 pound thickly sliced bacon, diced

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 bay leaves, crushed

1/8 teaspoon ground coriander

Salt and pepper to taste

Chopped fresh cilantro or fresh parsley (optional)

Directions

Heat the oil in a large pot or Dutch oven. Add 3/4 cup of chopped onion, green onions, and garlic; cook and stir until softened, about 4 minutes. Pour in the soaked beans and fill with enough water to cover beans by 3 inches. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer uncovered for 2 hours, or until tender.

While beans are cooking, place ham hocks in a smaller pot with 1/4 cup of the chopped onion. Cover with water and simmer, until meat pulls off of the bone easily, about 1 hour. Drain and add to the beans.

Drain the bacon and ham mixture, and add to the beans. Season with bay leaves, coriander, salt, and pepper. Simmer uncovered 30 minutes more. Stir in chopped cilantro and parsley just before serving.

ABOUT THIS SERIES:

"Accents” seeks to, one by one, tell the unique stories of our 10,000 immigrant neighbors living and working here in the Berkshires.

Reinout van Wagtendonk, a Dutch-born journalist and longtime resident of Lee, is the host and producer of Accents, which consists of a podcast interview you can listen to online at BerkshireEagle.com, along with this story and even a special recipe provided by the guest that’s representative of his or her native country.

MONTEREY — Sandboarding down the dunes to the pristine beaches, then surfing the ocean waves or fishing or snorkeling in the azure blue waters. Living in Cabo Frio, Brazil, sounds like living in paradise.

"It pretty much is," agrees 29-year-old Ruda Fabiano about his hometown. Together with Arraial do Cabo and B zios, these ABC towns northeast of Rio de Janeiro are known as the Brazilian Caribbean.

"ABC, like Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao," Fabiano explains enthusiastically. "I enjoyed every second of the paradise there.

"Of course my family was very much about study and school, so during the week I could not enjoy the paradise too much. But there are so many activities, so many beautiful scenarios."

Fabiano talks about his childhood paradise at the dining room table of the apartment on Main Road in Monterey he shares with his wife, Amber, and their 5-year-old daughter, Alycia.

His mother, Cristina, would be proud of her son's irresistible descriptions of the natural beauty of their tropical home. She is a consultant in the tourist industry. His father, Fabio, was instrumental in creating Brazil's first marine reserve, 140,000 acres of coastal water preserving both the unspoiled environment and the livelihood of the local fishermen.

"That worked out pretty good," Fabiano says. "My dad was protecting the area and my mom was bringing in the tourists."

Seven years ago Fabiano left paradise. Ski Butternut became his introduction to the United States and the Berkshires. The Great Barrington ski resort offers winter jobs and housing to a range of international workers. Companies in Brazil and other countries broker those seasonal "work experience" opportunities.

Fabiano had never known winter, but he was hired as a snowboarding instructor. His skills on surf- and sandboards translated to the ski slopes. His readily evident people skills made him a good instructor, too.

Still, the contrast between his year-round beach life and a Berkshires February could hardly be starker.

"That was exactly what I was looking for, though," he says. "If I really wanted to know another culture and to introduce myself to a whole new experience, I really had to go to the extreme.

"And for me the Berkshires is extreme. You have the beautiful mountains and the foliage in the fall and the snow. Which is a 100 percent different from what I am used to."

"Or was used to," Fabiano corrects himself. "At Butternut, you are working and dealing with people every day so you will improve your English. And that's what happened. But also, I met my wife."

Fabiano says that Amber Drake, now Fabiano, a graduate from Mount Everett high school in Sheffield, could have taught him a thing or two about snowboarding. They fell in love, she followed him to Brazil for a year and then they moved back to Western Massachusetts.

An electrical engineering graduate from Veiga de Almeida University in Rio de Janeiro, Ruda Fabiano enrolled at Holyoke Community College. He worked in the Berkshires and the Holyoke area as an arborist and landscaper. He believes that his parents' jobs in environmental protection and tourism inform his career choices and his affinity for the Berkshires.

These days, he commutes from Monterey to his job at a biogas power plant in Chicopee, where energy is extracted from the methane emissions of a landfill.

With his wife and daughter, Fabiano travels back to his small Brazilian hometown for annual visits. He hopes to live there again for a longer period while his daughter is still young. But the Berkshires are his home now, he says. A New England Patriots logo on his shirt affirms that for him.

"When you are in a different culture you have to embrace that culture," he says. "I don't know much about the Patriots and the Red Sox. But I know that they are the best and they are the best because they are from Massachusetts. They are from where I am."

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